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Monday, October 8, 2012

Cranberry Chutney..My twist..

India is a place of different regions with varied culture.Same way we have different spices. Each part of India has various spices and we are so much in love with these spices that thinking about food without it is very tough for us. Our taste buds are very much programmed to them that anything bland doesn't appeal to it...Same is every persons situation from any part of the world, everyone has their set of spices...

Similarly we are very adaptive to the changes in situations by customizing it to our needs.Since we are speaking of food...just look around we will see 1000s of food stuffs that people have changed or altered to make them more closer to Indian food stuffs...I am no different from that...Its not because the recipe by itself is bad, but just because our taste buds are more used to this taste and demand for those...
Today's recipe is cranberry chutney...Now this is again tweaked to make our taste buds happy..:)
Yes the Indian style cranberry chutney...Ok don't think about a list of spices...Its just 1 or 2 and no much cooking...Its simply too good...with taste that makes each part of your tongue dance...

Method of Preparation:
1. Add water and cranberries in a pan and boil till it pops and breaks. About 4 mins.
2. Mash slightly the popped berries and then add the cumin powder,cloves, salt and chili flakes.Reduce the heat to low. Boil till the water is reduced to 1/4 cup.
3. Now add the brown sugar/jaggery and continue cooking. Add the ginger pieces at this stage. Mix well.
4. Continue cooking for 4 minutes till the mixture turns slightly thick.Turn off heat, cool and store in a dry jar.Have with chips, breads,rice,anything and everything.

Notes:
1. I din't wanted to cook ginger, so added it in the last step. The ginger had the crunch, still was mixed with the cranberry nicely.
2. Add jaggery/brown sugar by checking for sweetness. Don't add too much. Recommended to add 1 tbsp at a time. Mix and check.The chutney was thick, slightly sweet, tart and spicy.
3. If you want it slightly runny stop cooking when desired stage is attained.
4. With above mentioned quantity I got about the amount of chutney pictured.

5. To make roasted cumin powder : Heat a pan and add 2 tsp of cumin to it. Roast it on medium heat till nice aroma spreads. Now crush this using a mortar and pestle to fine powder.

when I make cranberry sauce I usually add sweet spices like cinnamon and cloves - I never did it with savory spices - the chile must add a nice kick to it - but since cranberries are so tart, I think I would need more sugar/jaggery. Will def. add the chile to it next time I make it.